This invention relates generally to mop heads that are attachable to a handle for cleaning floors and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to a fabric covering for wet mop heads.
Mops of various constructions have been used for many years for wet mopping of floors and for applying floor waxes, floor finishes and the like. A simple mop head is one where individual strands of yam are gathered together in the middle of the mop head for attachment to a handle. These strands of yarn are laid out in parallel rows, with a headband that serves as a point of attachment to the handle. After attachment to the handle by a suitable gripping means engaging the headband, the mop head is used for usual floor maintenance and is subsequently detached for laundering. Sometimes the fabric strands are sewn together near the extremities of the mop head strands to keep them in place during use and during laundering. However, over an extended period of use, the strands of yarn unravel and break apart causing the mop head to lose its effectiveness.
In order to overcome excessive fraying of cut ends, such mop heads sometimes have a looped-end design. The looped-end design ensures that there is no tangling, unraveling, or linting of yarn during use. However, the looped-ends often catch under the legs of desks, chairs, tables and the like causing inconvenience to the user and/or damage to the mop heads. In addition, due to the nature of the parallel strands of yarn, voids are often left between adjacent strands of yarn resulting in areas of the floor being untouched and requiring additional passes of the mop head to clean or apply liquid to the floor.
Because wet mop heads should distribute liquid evenly on a floor during use, it is desirable that the wet mop stands have good liquid absorption in order to retain liquids and distribute them evenly over an area to be cleaned. Therefore, typical wet mop strands are composed of highly absorbent materials, such as cotton and the like. Although the cotton strands have good liquid absorbency, they tend to shrink and fray during use, thus limiting the usefull life of the mop. To reduce this problem, the wet mop strands have been made of blends of rayon or other synthetic materials. However, these materials tend to cause streaks in the floor during cleaning and reduce the effectiveness of liquid pickup of the wet mop during use.
There is therefore a need for a mop head having a construction that resists tangles and frays, and also prevents the linting of fibers and unraveling of the mop head strands during use, especially on rough surfaces. It is also desirable that the mop head provide additional absorbency beyond that available in conventional mop head designs.